Memories of Queen’s local visit

THE DEATH of Queen Elizabeth II evoked memories as well as sympathy for those who recalled her visit to the area some 54 years ago.

Tameside was not even in existence when Her Majesty came to Dukinfield and Hyde on May 16, 1968.

Visiting William Kenyon and Sons rope company – which is still based in Dukinfield – she followed in the footsteps of famed mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary, who used their ropes to conquer Mount Everest in 1953, and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, who visited four years prior to her.

Accompanied by Sir George Kenyon, the Queen was showed around the towns by the man who became Deputy Lieutenant of Chester and Greater Manchester and High Sheriff of Cheshire.

The Kenyon family also has a fine record of public service. Edwin Kenyon was a member of the first Dukinfield Council in 1899 and George Henry Kenyon served as mayor throughout the First World War until his death in 1917.

His widow, Elizabeth Hannah, completed his term and in 1919 was one of the first three people to receive the freedom of the borough.

Arnold Kenyon, who was company chairman from 1917 to 1961, was mayor of Dukinfield in 1935 and oversaw the construction of the Jubilee Hall.

He was succeeded by Sir George, who in 1968 rescued a ‘cruck-framed building’ standing on the corner of Dukinfield Road and Dunkirk Lane in Hyde.

Carbon dating placed the construction of this building to 1370 and it survived because much later it was encased in a brick building having a blue slate roof.

Queen Elizabeth II’s visit was also in conjunction with Operation Springclean — a massive campaign launched the previous autumn for a clean-up of the north-west.

At the time, businessman William L. Mather wrote: “In north-west England we have a problem.

“We have a world-wide reputation for ugliness and grime and people brought up in the region have come to accept smog and industrial dereliction as a normal background to life.

“Operation Springclean asks every individual and every organisation in the north-west region, which consists of Lancashire, Cheshire and the High Peak District of Derbyshire, to carry out a better spring clean in 1968 than they have ever done before.

“This is not asking very much of anybody, but we believe that the cumulative effect of the efforts of six and a half million people, over 14,000 firms, 180 local authorities, and all the other organisations in the region, could be tremendous.

“The Queen intends to tour Lancashire and Cheshire to view Operation Springclean.

“The tour will, as far as possible, consist of visits to those areas where the greatest efforts are being made, so as to give Her Majesty an opportunity not only of viewing results but of meeting those people who are making the greatest contributions.

“Operation Springclean intends and expects to set a new standard of good housekeeping. It intends and expects to get rid once and for all of the grimy image of the industrial north-west and the attitude of mind which accepts it.”

Like many of her visits, Her Majesty did not just glance at what was being done before leaving.
On this one, Her Majesty signed the visitors’ book at Kenyon’s Dukinfield base and spoke to a pupil of the then Lakes Road secondary Modern School.

She also spoke to Mayor of Dukinfield at the time, Ernest Brown.